High inflation and efforts to tame it defined 2022 economy

By PAUL WISEMAN and ANNE D’INNOCENZIO
AP Business Writers

WASHINGTON (AP) — At times, 2022 felt like the 1970s or early ’80s. Inflation running rampant. A bleak outlook leaving people feeling sour and anxious. It wasn’t supposed to turn out like this. When the Federal Reserve’s policymakers made their 2022 forecasts a year ago, they felt almost cheery. It turns out they underestimated how much wage growth, supply shortages and the pent-up desire of consumers to spend would conspire to keep inflation high. But mainly what they didn’t foresee was that Russia would invade neighboring Ukraine in February this year — an act of shocking aggression that upended world trade in energy and farm products and sent oil, natural gas and grain prices soaring.